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Chapter VII
LOW SPIRITS, ANXIETY, GRIEF, DEJECTION, DESPAIR.
General effect of grief on the system--Obliquity of the eyebrows
under suffering--On the cause of the obliquity of the eyebrows--
On the depression of the corners of the mouth.
AFTER the mind has suffered from an acute paroxysm of grief,
and the cause still continues, we fall into a state of low spirits;
or we may be utterly cast down and dejected. Prolonged bodily pain,
if not amounting to an agony, generally leads to the same state of mind.
If we expect to suffer, we are anxious; if we have no hope
of relief, we despair.
Persons suffering from excessive grief often seek relief by violent
and almost frantic movements, as described in a former chapter;
but when their suffering is somewhat mitigated, yet prolonged,
they no longer wish for action, but remain motionless
and passive, or may occasionally rock themselves to and fro.
The circulation becomes languid; the face pale; the muscles flaccid;
the eyelids droop; the head hangs on the contracted chest;
the lips, checks, and lower jaw all sink downwards from
their own weight. Hence all the features are lengthened;
and the face of a person who hears bad news is said to fall.
A party of natives in Tierra del Fuego endeavoured to explain
to us that their friend, the captain of a sealing vessel,
was out of spirits, by pulling down their cheeks with
both hands, so as to make their faces as long as possible.
Mr. Bunnet informs me that the Australian aborigines when out
of spirits have a chop-fallen appearance. After prolonged
suffering the eyes become dull and lack expression, and are often
slightly suffused with tears. The eyebrows not rarely are
rendered oblique, which is due to their inner ends being raised.
This produces peculiarly-formed wrinkles on the forehead,
which are very different from those of a simple frown;
though in some cases a frown alone may be present.
The corners of the mouth are drawn downwards, which is so
universally recognized as a sign of being out of spirits,
that it is almost proverbial.
The breathing becomes slow and feeble, and is often interrupted
by deep sighs. As Gratiolet remarks, whenever our attention is long
concentrated on any subject, we forget to breathe, and then relieve
ourselves by a deep inspiration; but the sighs of a sorrowful person,
owing to his slow respiration and languid circulation,
are eminently characteristic.[1] As the grief of a person
in this state occasionally recurs and increases into a paroxysm,
spasms affect the respiratory muscles, and he feels as if something,
the so-called _globus hystericus_, was rising in his throat.
These spasmodic movements are clearly allied to the sobbing
of children, and are remnants of those severer spasms which occur
when a person is said to choke from excessive grief.[2]
[1] The above descriptive remarks are taken in part from my own observations,
but chiefly from Gratiolet (`De la Physionomie,' pp. 53, 337; on Sighing,
232), who has well treated this whole subject. See, also, Huschke. `Mimices
et Physiognomices, Fragmentum Physiologicitim,' 1821, p. 21. On the dulness
of the eyes, Dr. Piderit, `Mimik und Physiognomik,' 1867, s. 65.
[2] On the action of grief on the organs of respiration,
_Obliquity of the eyebrows_.--Two points alone in the above
description require further elucidation, and these are
very curious ones; namely, the raising of the inner ends of
the eyebrows, and the drawing down of the corners of the mouth.
With respect to the eyebrows, they may occasionally be seen
to assume an oblique position in persons suffering from deep
dejection or anxiety; for instance, I have observed this
movement in a mother whilst speaking about her sick son;
and it is sometimes excited by quite trifling or momentary
causes of real or pretended distress. The eyebrows assume
this position owing to the contraction of certain muscles
(namely, the orbiculars, corrugators, and pyramidals of the nose,
which together tend to lower and contract the eyebrows)
being partially checked by the more powerful action of the central
fascim of the frontal muscle. These latter fasciae by their
contraction raise the inner ends alone of the eyebrows;
and as the corrugators at the same time draw the eyebrows together,
their inner ends become puckered into a fold or lump.
This fold is a highly characteristic point in the appearance
of the eyebrows when rendered oblique, as may be seen in figs.
2 and 5, Plate II. The eyebrows are at the same time
somewhat roughened, owing to the hairs being made to project.
Dr. J. Crichton Browne has also often noticed in melancholic
patients who keep their eyebrows persistently oblique,
"a peculiar acute arching of the upper eyelid."
A trace of this may be observed by comparing the right and left
eyelids of the young man in the photograph (fig. 2, Plate II.);
for he was not able to act equally on both eyebrows. This is also
shown by the unequal furrows on the two sides of his forehead.
The acute arching of the eyelids
see more especially Sir C. Bell, `Anatomy of Expression,' 3rd edit.
1844, p. 151. depends, I believe, on the inner end alone of the eyebrows
being raised; for when the whole eyebrow is elevated and arched,
the upper eyelid follows in a slight degree the same movement.
But the most conspicuous result of the opposed contraction of the above-named
muscles, is exhibited by the peculiar furrows formed on the forehead.
These muscles, when thus in conjoint yet opposed action, may be called,
for the sake of brevity, the grief-muscles. When a person elevates
his eyebrows by the contraction of the whole frontal muscle,
transverse wrinkles extend across the whole breadth of the forehead;
but in the present case the middle fasciae alone are contracted;
consequently, transverse furrows are formed across the middle
part alone of the forehead. The skin over the exterior parts
of both eyebrows is at the same time drawn downwards and smooth,
by the contraction of the outer portions of the orbicular muscles.
The eyebrows are likewise brought together through the simultaneous
contraction of the corrugators;[3] and this latter action generates
vertical furrows, separating the exterior and lowered part of the skin
of the forehead from the central and raised part. The union of these
vertical furrows with the central and transverse furrows (see figs.
2 and 3) produces a mark on the forehead which has been compared
to a horse-shoe; but the furrows more strictly form three sides
of a quadrangle. They are often conspicuous on the foreheads of adult
or nearly adult persons, when their eyebrows are made oblique;
but with young children, owing to their skin not easily wrinkling,
they are rarely seen, or mere traces of them can be detected.
These peculiar furrows are best represented in fig. 3, Plate II.,
on the forehead of a young lady who has the power in an unusual
degree of voluntarily acting on the requisite muscles.
As she was absorbed in the attempt, whilst being photographed,
her expression was not at all one of grief; I have therefore
given the forehead alone. Fig. 1 on the same plate, copied from
Dr. Duchenne's work 4 represents, on a reduced scale, the face,
in its natural state, of a young man who was a good actor.
In fig. 2 he is shown simulating grief, but the
[3] In the foregoing remarks on the manner in which the eyebrows
are made oblique, I have followed what seems to be the universal
opinion of all the anatomists, whose works I have consulted on
the action of the above-named muscles, or with whom I have conversed.
Hence throughout this work I shall take a similar view of the action
of the _corrugator supercilii_, _orbicularis, pyramidalis nasi_,
and _frontalis_ muscles. Dr. Duchenne, however, believes, and every
conclusion at which he arrives deserves serious consideration, that it
is the corrugator, called by him the _sourcilier_, which raises the inner
corner of the eyebrows and is antagonistic to the upper and inner
part of the orbicular muscle, as well as to the _pyramidalis nasi_
(see Mecanisme de la Phys. Humaine, 1862, folio, art.
v., text and figures 19 to 29: octavo edit. 1862, p. 43 text).
He admits, however, that the corrugator draws together the eyebrows,
causing vertical furrows above the base of the nose, or a frown.
He further believes that towards the outer two-thirds of the eyebrow
the corrugator acts in conjunction with the upper orbicular muscle;
both here standing in antagonism to the frontal muscle.
I am unable to understand, judging from Henle's drawings (woodcut, fig.
3), how the corrugator can act in the manner described
by Duchenue. See, also, oil this subject, Prof. Donders' remarks in
the `Archives of Medicine,' 1870, vol. v. p. 34. Mr. J. Wood,
who is so well known for his careful study of the muscles
of the human frame, informs me that he believes the account
which I have given of the action of the corrugator to be correct.
But this is not a point of any importance with respect to
the expression which is caused by the obliquity of the eyebrows,
nor of much importance to the theory of its origin.
`I am greatly indebted to Dr. Duchenne for permission to have
these two photographs (figs. 1 and 2) reproduced by the heliotype
process from his work in folio. Many of the foregoing remarks on
the furrowing of the skin, when the eyebrows are rendered oblique,
are taken from his excellent discussion on this subject.
two eyebrows, as before remarked, are not equally acted on.
That the expression is true, may be inferred from the fact
that out of fifteen persons, to whom the original photograph
was shown, without any clue to what was intended being
given them, fourteen immediately answered, "despairing sorrow,"
"suffering endurance," "melancholy," and so forth. The history of fig.
5 is rather curious: I saw the photograph in a shop-window,
and took it to Mr. Rejlander for the sake of finding out by whom it
had been made; remarking to him how pathetic the expression was.
He answered, "I made it, and it was likely to be pathetic,
for the boy in a few minutes burst out crying." He then showed me
a photograph of the same boy in a placid state, which I have had
(fig. 4) reproduced. In fig. 6, a trace of obliquity in
the eyebrows may be detected; but this figure, as well as fig.
7, is given to show the depression of the corners of the mouth,
to which subject I shall presently refer.
Few persons, without some practice, can voluntarily act on
their grief-muscles; but after repeated trials a considerable
number succeed, whilst others never can. The degree of obliquity
in the eyebrows, whether assumed voluntarily or unconsciously,
differs much in different persons. With some who apparently have
unusually strong pyramidal muscles, the contraction of the central
fasciae of the frontal muscle, although it may be energetic,
as shown by the quadrangular furrows on the forehead,
does not raise the inner ends of the eyebrows, but only prevents
their being so much lowered as they otherwise would have been.
As far as I have been able to observe, the grief-muscles are brought
into action much more frequently by children and women than by men.
They are rarely acted on, at least with grown-up persons,
from bodily pain, but almost exclusively from mental distress.
Two persons who, after some practice, succeeded in acting on their
grief-muscles, found by looking at a mirror that when they made
their eyebrows oblique, they unintentionally at the same time
depressed the corners of their mouths; and this is often the case
when the expression is naturally assumed.
The power to bring the grief-muscles freely into play appears
to be hereditary, like almost every other human faculty.
A lady belonging to a family famous for having produced an extraordinary
number of great actors and actresses, and who can herself give this
expression "with singular precision," told Dr. Crichton Browne
that all her family had possessed the power in a remarkable degree.
The same hereditary tendency is said to have extended, as I likewise
hear from Dr. Browne, to the last descendant of the family,
which gave rise to Sir Walter Scott's novel of `Red Gauntlet;'
but the hero is described as contracting his forehead into a
horseshoe mark from any strong emotion. I have also seen a young
woman whose forehead seemed almost habitually thus contracted,
independently of any emotion being at the time felt.
The grief-muscles are not very frequently brought into play;
and as the action is often momentary, it easily escapes observation.
Although the expression, when observed, is universally and instantly
recognized as that of grief or anxiety, yet not one person
out of a thousand who has never studied the subject, is able
to say precisely what change passes over the sufferer's face.
Hence probably it is that this expression is not even alluded to,
as far as I have noticed, in any work of fiction, with the exception
of `Red Gauntlet' and of one other novel; and the authoress
of the latter, as I am informed, belongs to the famous family
of actors just alluded to; so that her attention may have been
specially called to the subject.
The ancient Greek sculptors were familiar with the expression, as shown
in the statues of the Laocoon and Arretino; but, as Duchenne remarks,
they carried the transverse furrows across the whole breadth
of the forehead, and thus committed a great anatomical mistake:
this is likewise the case in some modern statues.
It is, however, more probable that these wonderfully accurate
observers intentionally sacrificed truth for the sake of beauty,
than that they made a mistake; for rectangular furrows on
the forehead would not have had a grand appearance on the marble.
The expression, in its fully developed condition, is, as far
as I can discover, not often represented in pictures by
the old masters, no doubt owing to the same cause; but a lady
who is perfectly familiar with this expression, informs me
that in Fra Angelico's `Descent from the Cross,' in Florence,
it is clearly exhibited in one of the figures on the right-hand;
and I could add a few other instances.
Dr. Crichton Browne, at my request, closely attended to this
expression in the numerous insane patients under his care
in the West Riding Asylum; and he is familiar with Duchenne's
photographs of the action of the grief-muscles. He informs me
that they may constantly be seen in energetic action in cases
of melancholia, and especially of hypochondria; and that the
persistent lines or furrows, due to their habitual contraction,
are characteristic of the physiognomy of the insane belonging
to these two classes. Dr. Browne carefully observed for me
during a considerable period three cases of hypochondria,
in which the grief-muscles were persistently contracted.
In one of these, a widow, aged 51, fancied that she had
lost all her viscera, and that her whole body was empty.
She wore an expression of great distress, and beat her semi-closed
hands rhythmically together for hours. The grief-muscles
were permanently contracted, and the upper eyelids arched.
This condition lasted for months; she then recovered,
and her countenance resumed its natural expression.
A second case presented nearly the same peculiarities,
with the addition that the corners of the mouth were depressed.
Mr. Patrick Nicol has also kindly observed for me several cases
in the Sussex Lunatic Asylum, and has communicated to me full details
with respect to three of them; but they need not here be given.
From his observations on melancholic patients, Mr. Nicol concludes that
the inner ends of the eyebrows are almost always more or less raised,
with the wrinkles on the forehead more or less plainly marked.
In the case of one young woman, these wrinkles were observed to be
in constant slight play or movement. In some cases the corners
of the mouth are depressed, but often only in a slight degree.
Some amount of difference in the expression of the several melancholic
patients could almost always be observed. The eyelids generally droop;
and the skin near their outer corners and beneath them is wrinkled.
The naso-labial fold, which runs from the wings of the nostrils to the
corners of the mouth, and which is so conspicuous in blubbering children,
is often plainly marked in these patients.
Although with the insane the grief-muscles often act persistently;
yet in ordinary cases they are sometimes brought unconsciously
into momentary action by ludicrously slight causes.
A gentleman rewarded a young lady by an absurdly small present;
she pretended to be offended, and as she upbraided him, her eyebrows
became extremely oblique, with the forehead properly wrinkled.
Another young lady and a youth, both in the highest spirits,
were eagerly talking together with extraordinary rapidity;
and I noticed that, as often as the young lady was beaten,
and could not get out her words fast enough, her eyebrows
went obliquely upwards, and rectangular furrows were formed
on her forehead. She thus each time hoisted a flag of distress;
and this she did half-a-dozen times in the course of a few minutes.
I made no remark on the subject, but on a subsequent occasion I
asked her to act on her grief-muscles; another girl who was present,
and who could do so voluntarily, showing her what was intended.
She tried repeatedly, but utterly failed; yet so slight a cause
of distress as not being able to talk quickly enough, sufficed to
bring these muscles over and over again into energetic action.
The expression of grief, due to the contraction of the grief-muscles,
is by no means confined to Europeans, but appears to be common to all
the races of mankind. I have, at least, received trustworthy accounts
in regard to Hindoos, Dhangars (one of the aboriginal hill-tribes
of India, and therefore belonging to a quite distinct race from the
Hindoos), Malays, Negroes and Australians. With respect to the latter,
two observers answer my query in the affirmative, but enter into no details.
Mr. Taplin, however, appends to my descriptive remarks the words
"this is exact." With respect to negroes, the lady who told me
of Fra Angelico's picture, saw a negro towing a boat on the Nile,
and as he encountered an obstruction, she observed his grief-muscles
in strong action, with the middle of the forehead well wrinkled.
Mr. Geach watched a Malay man in Malacca, with the corners of his
mouth much depressed, the eyebrows oblique, with deep short grooves
on the forehead. This expression lasted for a very short time;
and Mr. Geach remarks it "was a strange one, very much like a person
about to cry at some great loss."
In India Mr. H. Erskine found that the natives were familiar with
this expression; and Mr. J. Scott, of the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta,
has obligingly sent me a full description of two cases.
He observed during some time, himself unseen, a very young
Dhangar woman from Nagpore, the wife of one of the gardeners,
nursing her baby who was at the point of death; and he distinctly
saw the eyebrows raised at the inner corners, the eyelids drooping,
the forehead wrinkled in the middle, the mouth slightly open,
with the corners much depressed. He then came from behind a screen
of plants and spoke to the poor woman, who started, burst into
a bitter flood of tears, and besought him to cure her baby.
The second case was that of a Hindustani man, who from illness
and poverty was compelled to sell his favourite goat.
After receiving the money, he repeatedly looked at the money
in his hand and then at the goat, as if doubting whether he would
not return it. He went to the goat, which was tied up ready
to be led away, and the animal reared up and licked his hands.
His eyes then wavered from side to side; his "mouth was
partially closed, with the corners very decidedly depressed."
At last the poor man seemed to make up his mind that he must part
with his goat, and then, as Mr. Scott saw, the eyebrows became
slightly oblique, with the characteristic puckering or swelling at
the inner ends, but the wrinkles on the forehead were not present.
The man stood thus for a minute, then heaving a deep sigh,
burst into tears, raised up his two hands, blessed the goat,
turned round, and without looking again, went away.
_On the cause of the obliquity of the eyebrows under suffering_.--
During several years no expression seemed to me so utterly
perplexing as this which we are here considering. Why should grief
or anxiety cause the central fasciae alone of the frontal muscle
together with those round the eyes, to contract? Here we seem
to have a complex movement for the sole purpose of expressing grief;
and yet it is a comparatively rare expression, and often overlooked.
I believe the explanation is not so difficult as it at first appears.
Dr. Duchenne gives a photograph of the young man before referred to,
who, when looking upwards at a strongly illuminated surface,
involuntarily contracted his grief-muscles in an exaggerated manner.
I had entirely forgotten this photograph, when on a very bright
day with the sun behind me, I met, whilst on horseback, a girl
whose eyebrows, as she looked up at me, became extremely oblique,
with the proper furrows on her forehead. I have observed the same
movement under similar circumstances on several subsequent occasions.
On my return home I made three of my children, without giving them
any clue to my object, look as long and as attentively as they could,
at the summit of a tall tree standing against an extremely bright sky.
With all three, the orbicular, corrugator, and pyramidal muscles were
energetically contracted, through reflex action, from the excitement of
the retina, so that their eyes might be protected from the bright light.
But they tried their utmost to look upwards; and now a curious struggle,
with spasmodic twitchings, could be observed between the whole
or only the central portion of the frontal muscle, and the several
muscles which serve to lower the eyebrows and close the eyelids.
The involuntary contraction of the pyramidal caused the basal
part of their noses to be transversely and deeply wrinkled.
In one of the three children, the whole eyebrows were momentarily
raised and lowered by the alternate contraction of the whole frontal
muscle and of the muscles surrounding the eyes, so that the whole
breadth of the forehead was alternately wrinkled and smoothed.
In the other two children the forehead became wrinkled in the middle
part alone, rectangular furrows being thus produced; and the eyebrows
were rendered oblique, with their inner extremities puckered and swollen,--
in the one child in a slight degree, in the other in a strongly
marked manner. This difference in the obliquity of the eyebrows
apparently depended on a difference in their general mobility, and in
the strength of the pyramidal muscles. In both these cases the eyebrows
and forehead were acted on under the influence of a strong light,
in precisely the same manner, in every characteristic detail,
as under the influence of grief or anxiety.
Duchenne states that the pyramidal muscle of the nose is less under
the control of the will than are the other muscles round the eyes.
He remarks that the young man who could so well act on his grief-muscles,
as well as on most of his other facial muscles, could not contract the
pyramidals.[5] This power, however, no doubt differs in different persons.
The pyramidal muscle serves to draw down the skin of the forehead
between the eyebrows, together with their inner extremities.
The central fasciae of the frontal are the antagonists of the pyramidal;
and if the action of the latter is to be specially checked,
these central fasciae must be contracted. So that with persons having
powerful pyramidal muscles, if there is under the influence of a bright
light an unconscious desire to prevent the lowering of the eyebrows,
the central fasciae of the frontal muscle must be brought into play;
and their contraction, if sufficiently strong to overmaster the pyramidals,
together with the contraction of the corrugator and orbicular muscles,
will act in the manner just described on the eyebrows and forehead.
When children scream or cry out, they contract, as we know,
the orbicular, corrugator, and pyramidal muscles, primarily for
the sake of compressing their eyes, and thus protecting them
from being gorged with blood, and secondarily through habit.
I therefore expected to find with children, that when they
endeavoured either to prevent a crying-fit from coming on,
or to stop crying, they would cheek the contraction of
the above-named muscles, in the same manner as when looking
upwards at a bright light; and consequently that the central
fasciae of the frontal muscle would often be brought into play.
Accordingly, I began myself to observe children at such times,
and asked others, including some medical men, to do the same.
It is necessary to observe carefully, as the peculiar opposed
action of these muscles is not nearly so plain in children,
owing to their foreheads not easily wrinkling, as in adults.
But I soon found that the grief-muscles were very frequently
brought into distinct action on these occasions. It would
be superfluous to give all the cases which have been observed;
and I will specify only a few. A little girl, a year and
a half old, was teased by some other children, and before
bursting into tears her eyebrows became decidedly oblique.
With an older girl the same obliquity was observed,
with the inner ends of the eyebrows plainly puckered; and at
the same time the corners of the mouth were drawn downwards.
As soon as she burst into tears, the features all changed and
this peculiar expression vanished. Again, after a little boy
had been vaccinated, which made him scream and cry violently,
the surgeon gave him an orange brought for the purpose,
and this pleased the child much; as he stopped crying all the
characteristic movements were observed, including the formation
of rectangular wrinkles in the middle of the forehead.
Lastly, I met on the road a little girl three or four years old,
who had been frightened by a dog, and when I asked her what was
the matter, she stopped whimpering, and her eyebrows instantly
became oblique to an extraordinary degree.
[5] Mecanisme de la Phys. Humaine, Album, p. 15.
Here then, as I cannot doubt, we have the key to the problem why the central
fasciae of the frontal muscle and the muscles round the eyes contract
in opposition to each other under the influence of grief;--whether their
contraction be prolonged, as with the melancholic insane, or momentary,
from some trifling cause of distress. We have all of us, as infants,
repeatedly contracted our orbicular, corrugator, and pyramidal muscles,
in order to protect our eyes whilst screaming; our progenitors before us
have done the same during many generations; and though with advancing years
we easily prevent, when feeling distressed, the utterance of screams,
we cannot from long habit always prevent a slight contraction of the
above-named muscles; nor indeed do we observe their contraction in ourselves,
or attempt to stop it, if slight. But the pyramidal muscles seem
to be less under the command of the will than the other related muscles;
and if they be well developed, their contraction can be checked only by
the antagonistic contraction of the central fasciae of the frontal muscle.
The result which necessarily follows, if these fasciae contract energetically,
is the oblique drawing up of the eyebrows, the puckering of their inner ends,
and the formation of rectangular furrows on the middle of the forehead.
As children and women cry much more freely than men, and as grown-up
persons of both sexes rarely weep except from mental distress, we can
understand why the grief-muscles are more frequently seen in action,
as I believe to be the case, with children and women than with men;
and with adults of both sexes from mental distress alone. In some of
the cases before recorded, as in that of the poor Dhangar woman and of
the Hindustani man, the action of the grief-muscles was quickly followed
by bitter weeping. In all cases of distress, whether great or small,
our brains tend through long habit to send an order to certain muscles
to contract, as if we were still infants on the point of screaming out;
but this order we, by the wondrous power of the will, and through habit,
are able partially to counteract; although this is effected unconsciously,
as far as the means of counteraction are concerned.
_On the depression of the corners of the mouth_.--This action is
effected by the _depressores anguili oris_ (see letter K in figs.
1 and 2). The fibres of this muscle diverge downwards, with the upper
convergent ends attached round the angles of the mouth, and to
the lower lip a little way within the angles.[6] Some of the fibres
appear to be antagonistic to the great zygomatic muscle, and others
to the several muscles running to the outer part of the upper lip.
The contraction of this muscle draws downwards and outwards the corners
of the mouth, including the outer part of the upper lip, and even in
a slight degree the wings of the nostrils. When the mouth is closed
and this muscle acts, the commissure or line of junction of the two
lips forms a curved line with the concavity downwards,[7] and the lips
themselves are generally somewhat protruded, especially the lower one.
The mouth in this state is well represented in the two photographs
(Plate II., figs. 6 and 7) by Mr. Rejlander. The upper boy (fig. 6)
had just stopped crying, after receiving a slap on the face from another boy;
and the right moment was seized for photographing him.
[6] Henle, Handbuch der Anat. des Menschen, 1858, B. i. s. 148, figs.
68 and 69.
[7] See the account of the action of this muscle by Dr. Duchenne, `Mecanisme
de la Physionomie Humaine, Album (1862), viii. p. 34.
The expression of low spirits, grief or dejection, due to the contraction
of this muscle has been noticed by every one who has written on the subject.
To say that a person "is down in the mouth," is synonymous with saying
that he is out of spirits. The depression of the corners may often be seen,
as already stated on the authority of Dr. Crichton Browne and Mr. Nicol,
with the melancholic insane, and was well exhibited in some photographs sent
to me by the former gentleman, of patients with a strong tendency to suicide.
It has been observed with men belonging to various races, namely with Hindoos,
the dark hill-tribes of India, Malays, and, as the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer
informs me, with the aborigines of Australia.
When infants scream they firmly contract the muscles round
their eyes, and this draws up the upper lip; and as they
have to keep their mouths widely open, the depressor muscles
running to the corners are likewise brought into strong action.
This generally, but not invariably, causes a slight angular bend
in the lower lip on both sides, near the corners of the mouth.
The result of the upper and lower lip being thus acted on is that
the mouth assumes a squarish outline. The contraction of the depressor
muscle is best seen in infants when not screaming violently,
and especially just before they begin, or when they cease to scream.
Their little faces then acquire an extremely piteous expression,
as I continually observed with my own infants between the ages
of about six weeks and two or three months. Sometimes, when they
are struggling against a crying-fit, the outline of the mouth
is curved in so exaggerated a manner as to be like a horseshoe;
and the expression of misery then becomes a ludicrous caricature.
The explanation of the contraction of this muscle, under the influence
of low spirits or dejection, apparently follows from the same
general principles as in the case of the obliquity of the eyebrows.
Dr. Duchenne informs me that he concludes from his observations,
now prolonged during many years, that this is one of the facial muscles
which is least under the control of the will. This fact may indeed
be inferred from what has just been stated with respect to infants
when doubtfully beginning to cry, or endeavouring to stop crying;
for they then generally command all the other facial muscles more
effectually than they do the depressors of the corners of the mouth.
Two excellent observers who had no theory on the subject, one of them
a surgeon, carefully watched for me some older children and women
as with some opposed struggling they very gradually approached
the point of bursting out into tears; and both observers felt sure
that the depressors began to act before any of the other muscles.
Now as the depressors have been repeatedly brought into strong
action during infancy in many generations, nerve-force will tend
to flow, on the principle of long associated habit, to these
muscles as well as to various other facial muscles, whenever in
after life even a slight feeling of distress is experienced.
But as the depressors are somewhat less under the control of the will
than most of the other muscles, we might expect that they would
often slightly contract, whilst the others remained passive.
It is remarkable how small a depression of the corners of the mouth
gives to the countenance an expression of low spirits or dejection,
so that an extremely slight contraction of these muscles would
be sufficient to betray this state of mind.
I may here mention a trifling observation, as it will serve to sum
up our present subject. An old lady with a comfortable but absorbed
expression sat nearly opposite to me in a railway carriage.
Whilst I was looking at her, I saw that her _depressores anguli
oris_ became very slightly, yet decidedly, contracted; but as her
countenance remained as placid as ever, I reflected how meaningless
was this contraction, and how easily one might be deceived.
The thought had hardly occurred to me when I saw that her eyes
suddenly became suffused with tears almost to overflowing,
and her whole countenance fell. There could now be no doubt
that some painful recollection, perhaps that of a long-lost child,
was passing through her mind. As soon as her sensorium
was thus affected, certain nerve-cells from long habit
instantly transmitted an order to all the respiratory muscles,
and to those round the mouth, to prepare for a fit of crying.
But the order was countermanded by the will, or rather
by a later acquired habit, and all the muscles were obedient,
excepting in a slight degree the _depressores anguli oris_.
The mouth was not even opened; the respiration was not hurried;
and no muscle was affected except those which draw down the corners
of the mouth.
As soon as the mouth of this lady began, involuntarily and unconsciously
on her part, to assume the proper form for a crying-fit, we may feel
almost sure that some nerve-influence would have been transmitted
through the long accustomed channels to the various respiratory muscles,
as well as to those round the eyes, and to the vaso-motor centre
which governs the supply of blood sent to the lacrymal glands.
Of this latter fact we have indeed clear evidence in her eyes becoming
slightly suffused with tears; and we can understand this, as the lacrymal
glands are less under the control of the will than the facial muscles.
No doubt there existed at the same time some tendency in the muscles round
the eyes at contract, as if for the sake of protecting them from being
gorged with blood, but this contraction was completely overmastered,
and her brow remained unruffled. Had the pyramidal, corrugator, and orbicular
muscles been as little obedient to the will, as they are in many persons,
they would have been slightly acted on; and then the central fasciae
of the frontal muscle would have contracted in antagonism, and her eyebrows
would have become oblique, with rectangular furrows on her forehead.
Her countenance would then have expressed still more plainly than it did
a state of dejection, or rather one of grief.
Through steps such as these we can understand how it is, that as soon
as some melancholy thought passes through the brain, there occurs
a just perceptible drawing down of the corners of the mouth,
or a slight raising up of the inner ends of the eyebrows, or both
movements combined, and immediately afterwards a slight suffusion
of tears. A thrill of nerve-force is transmitted along several
habitual channels, and produces an effect on any point where the will
has not acquired through long habit much power of interference.
The above actions may be considered as rudimental vestiges of the
screaming-fits, which are so frequent and prolonged during infancy.
In this case, as well as in many others, the links are indeed wonderful
which connect cause and effect in giving rise to various expressions
on the human countenance; and they explain to us the meaning of
certain movements, which we involuntarily and unconsciously perform,
whenever certain transitory emotions pass through our minds.
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